A Gemini-powered personal health coach is available in preview for Fitbit Premium subscribers. I let it plan my workouts for five weeks, and saw results, even over a big holiday weekend.
I have trouble motivating myself to work out consistently, especially around the holidays. The Google personal health coach is the first fitness tool that’s actually helped me get through Thanksgiving without completely derailing my progress toward my goals. After five weeks of consistently using the AI-powered coach in the Fitbit app, I feel more energized and more in control than when I started.
Built on Gemini, the personal health coach transforms the standard Fitbit app into an AI-driven experience. It’s currently in public preview on Android, with iOS support expected soon, and a full rollout planned for next year. Access requires a Fitbit Premium subscription ($9.99/month).
Although it pulls data from a synced Fitbit device, you interact with the coach exclusively through the mobile app. Google plans to add more features during the preview, but for now, it primarily functions as a conversational AI guide, helping with fitness and sleep while identifying trends in your health data. The app features four main tabs: Today, highlighting timely insights; Fitness, for creating a weekly workout plan; Sleep, offering a detailed look at your nightly patterns; and Health, which tracks your overall metrics.
I’ve thoroughly tested the personal health coach, and after five weeks, I’m ready to call it the most effective automated health coach I’ve used—though it’s clear there’s room for improvement. Here’s a detailed look at my experience.Getting Started: Onboarding That Feels Like a Real Trainer
To get started with the Google personal health coach, you must be logged in to the Fitbit app with your Google account. During the preview, the coach is only available in the US in English for users aged 18 years or older. Note that not all Fitbit features have rolled forward to the new personal health coach interface yet, but you can always revert to the old app if you don’t like the new experience.
As mentioned, the experience requires a Fitbit Premium membership, and you’ll also need a Fitbit device that supports the brand’s Cardio Load metric. Your fitness tracker options include the following Fitbit wearables: the Inspire 2 or 3, the Luxe, the Sense or Sense 2, the Versa 2 through 4, or the Charge 5 or 6. For smartwatches, any of Google’s Pixel Watch models will work. I used the Pixel Watch 4.
If you have all the prerequisites, a card will appear in the app offering the option to update. I clicked the card, agreed to give the AI access to my data, and granted Google permission to use my data for research (the first permission is mandatory to use the coach, the second is optional).
Next, the AI coach interviews you to understand your goals and history and to set up an appropriate health plan; Google estimates that this step takes around 10 minutes in total. You can skip the interview and come back to it later, but I wanted to dive right in. During this interview, I conversed with the AI via a text interface in the app. The conversation reminded me of the initial chats I had with my real-life personal trainer, Jorge (an actual human, not AI), whom I see twice a week.
The coach asked me about my main goal, what I thought was working, and my biggest challenge in pursuit of that objective. It covers the basics of using the program and highlights the Ask Coach button, which is available in all app tabs. The initial conversation lasted approximately five minutes.
Creating the fitness plan took a few minutes longer, but I had some specific requests. At the outset, you can set different fitness goals from the ones you created for your overall health if you’d like. I’d been wearing the Pixel Watch 4 for a couple of weeks before onboarding, so it had some workout and sleep data to use for contextual information. It used that information to highlight the patterns it had observed, including my past activities, which it used as a basis for exercise recommendations, and my sporadic workout habits, which it took into account when setting goals.
It then asked what equipment I have access to, while pointing out that I likely have a heart rate monitor (which seems self-explanatory, given that a fitness tracker is required), as well as gym equipment for my past high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions. I confirmed its assumptions, then got specific regarding my own needs.
I specified that I only have access to gym equipment during my two personal training sessions a week. I told the AI that I don’t need help with those workouts, but could use some motivation to exercise more throughout the week.
The coach factored in that information and recommended a plan with four workouts a week, including my two personal training sessions. It also switched from recommending a bodyweight strength workout to a bodyweight cardio workout, as I focus on strength with my trainer. Additionally, it recommended a run for the other session, given that I’ve logged runs in the past.
Once adjusted, the coach asked for 10 minutes to process all the information, but my plan was finished and ready for my perusal within roughly 90 seconds.
